HealthPartners expands Wisconsin footprint

Nov. 21--Bloomington-based HealthPartners is looking to expand its health insurance business in Wisconsin through a marketing partnership with large hospital systems in Appleton and Green Bay.

Starting in early 2018, HealthPartners will sell coverage to employer groups in 17 northeast Wisconsin counties in conjunction with the Bellin Health and ThedaCare networks of hospitals and clinics. With more than 10,000 employees between them, the health care providers said they have selected the new "Robin with HealthPartners" coverage for their employer-sponsored health plans.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

It is the third time in as many years that the Bloomington-based insurer and hospital operator has looked to expand beyond Minnesota through partnerships with large health systems in neighboring states.

Announced last week, the Wisconsin agreement fits with a broader trend of more hospitals dabbling in the insurance business, as health plans and the government move to new contracts that ask health systems to take a degree of financial risk for the cost of treating patients.

"I think what HealthPartners is doing [with these partnerships] ... is saying, 'We've got all the administrative machinery to run a health plan, plus we have all this product development and marketing expertise that we'd like to sell or rent to provider systems across the region,' " said Allan Baumgarten, an independent health care analyst in St. Louis Park.

"Health care provider systems are interested in having greater control of the premium dollar," Baumgarten said, "but they're nervous about the risk and required investment that comes with owning their own health plan."

HealthPartners already sells coverage in Wisconsin, in addition to operating three hospitals in the western portion of the state. Bellin Health and ThedaCare already are partners in an "accountable care organization" project with the federal Medicare program, which gives hospitals financial incentives to efficiently care for patients.

"In three years, the partnership created $14 million in savings for the federal government," the groups said in a news release.

The nonprofits picked the name "Robin" because it's the state bird of Wisconsin, and "represents renewal, rebirth and a start of something new," a HealthPartners spokeswoman said via e-mail. The coverage will be available to employers with more than 51 employees starting in early 2018.

In October, HealthPartners said it would partner with Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health to sell Medicare health plans next year in North and South Dakota. HealthPartners started selling coverage last year in Illinois and Iowa in conjunction with UnityPoint Health, a hospital system based in Des Moines.

In the Dakotas and Wisconsin, HealthPartners will sell coverage through its existing health insurance business. In Iowa and Illinois, the nonprofit created a new company in conjunction with the UnityPoint system.

The new HealthPartners and UnityPoint Health business has contributed a small amount to the roughly $97 million in non-Minnesota premium revenue seen by HealthPartners entities through the first quarters of 2017, according to regulatory filings. That is up about 5 percent from two years ago at this time.

The insurance business in Minnesota remains much larger, with more than $2.4 billion in revenue through the first nine months of this year.

In recent years, Minnesota health plans have had mixed results in Wisconsin.

Like HealthPartners, Minnetonka-based Medica currently is expanding its offerings in the Badger State. But Mayo Clinic is winding down its HMO in western Wisconsin, and Minneapolis-based UCare left the Medicare market in Wisconsin last year.